Kevil - U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell made a few stops in West Paducah last Thursday. McConnell visited both Rudy's Farm Center in Kevil and Midwest Aviation at Barkley Regional Airport.

While his address to supporters at Midwest Aviation was primarily geared toward what the Senate Minority Leader has deemed Barack Obama's "War on Coal", McConnell made his way out to Rudy's Farm Center in Kevil to meet with farmers where the Senator talked about agriculture, coal, and seniority.

McConnell addressed the issue of the recently passed Farm Bill and spoke about this year in crop production. "With regard to agriculture, which is the lifeblood of most of you know, we had a very good year," he said. "Which, oddly enough for farmers that means prices will not be very good because we had a wonderful year. "

The Senator said he thinks farmers are enthusiastic about a new crop insurance plan that he feels will be useful in response to a year like this year. According to McConnell, the Farm Bill's insurance plan cushions the corn and soybean prices for farmers.

A central theme of McConnell's address to the farmers was the advantage of having one of the party leaders in the Senate in regard to what can be done to advance Kentucky in Agriculture. To this, he cited some of his endeavors concerning agriculture, which included his role in helping framers with the tobacco buyout program formed in a conference report on an unrelated bill ten years ago.

The Senator cited his role as the leader of his party in the Senate in negotiating a 5 million dollar per person estate tax exemption in response to what he claims is one of the biggest problems in Kentucky and across the country regarding small businesses and family farms with the inability to get their businesses down to the next generation.

"I always felt like the worst tax around was the 'death tax.' What it meant was the government gave you your final outrage," he said. "Your final outrage about the government was that you had to visit the IRS and the Undertaker on the same day."

McConnell also pointed to his current endeavor focused on industrial hemp, which is aimed at advancing Kentucky agriculture in the future. "We don't know whether this is going to be a terrific crop for us like it was for us in the 19th century or not," he said. "But it may be, and I'm told by those who know about this, it can be used for everything from pharmaceuticals to dashboards. So, apparently, it's a pretty flexible crop. "

McConnell again cited the advantage Kentucky would have with him at the helm as Senate Majority Leader as he pointed to the struggles he and Rand Paul have had concerning coal and the stance McConnell says Harry Reid has taken in blocking any chance of coal amendments to pass.

"There are some advantages to having the leader from your state over and above the changes we would like to see for all of America to move away from this guy and his policies," the Senator said.

Concerning his opponent, McConnell cited his seniority as being crucial to giving Kentucky an advantage as opposed to introducing a new face to the Senate that, he says, would have little influence.

"In almost every way you can think of, Kentucky would be advantaged by having somebody from our state setting the agenda," he said. "Every senator has one vote, but not every senator has equal influence.

McConnell pointed to the Alben Barkley period to illustrate his point that things happened for Kentucky with Barkley setting the agenda for the country. "The way to go in a different direction is to make me the leader of a new majority to set a new agenda for America," he said.

Before closing his address at Rudy's Farm Center, the Senator took one more shot at Grimes by acknowledging that the Senate hopeful is a new face as she has said, but he added, "She's a new face for the Status Quo. A new face to vote for Barack Obama. A new face to make Harry Reid the Majority Leader of the Senate. A new face for no change at all."